Carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems
The carbon-rich soils and peatlands of high-latitude ecosystems could substantially influence atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4 in a changing climate. Currently, cold, often waterlogged conditions retard decomposition, and release of carbon back to the atmosphere may be further slowed by phy...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:19940026126 2023-05-15T14:48:19+02:00 Carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems Holland, Elizabeth Frolking, Stephen Townsend, Alan Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available JAN 1, 1992 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19940026126 unknown Document ID: 19940026126 Accession ID: 94N30631 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19940026126 No Copyright CASI ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION University Corp. for Atmospheric Research, Modeling the Earth System, Volume 3; p 315-326 1992 ftnasantrs 2015-03-15T03:45:05Z The carbon-rich soils and peatlands of high-latitude ecosystems could substantially influence atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4 in a changing climate. Currently, cold, often waterlogged conditions retard decomposition, and release of carbon back to the atmosphere may be further slowed by physical protection of organic matter in permafrost. As a result, many northern ecosystems accumulate carbon over time (Billings et al., 1982; Poole and Miller, 1982), and although such rates of accumulation are low, thousands of years of development have left Arctic ecosystems with an extremely high soil carbon content; Schlesinger's (1984) average value of 20.4 kg C/m(sup 2) leads to a global estimate of 163 x 10(exp 15) g C. All GCM simulations of a doubled CO2 climate predict the greatest warming to occur in the polar regions (Dickinson, 1986; Mitchell, 1989). Given the extensive northern carbon pools and the strong sensitivity of decomposition processes to temperature, even a slight warming of the soil could dramatically alter the carbon balance of Arctic ecosystems. If warming accelerates rates of decomposition more than rates of primary production, a sizeable additional accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere could occur. Furthermore, CH4 produced in anaerobic soils and peatlands of the Arctic already composes a good percentage of the global efflux (Cicerone and Oremlund, 1988); if northern soils become warmer and wetter as a whole, CH4 emissions could dramatically rise. A robust understanding of the primary controls of carbon fluxes in Arctic ecosystems is critical. As a framework for a systematic examination of these controls, we discussed a conceptual model of regional-scale Arctic carbon turnover, including CH4 production, and based upon the Century soil organic matter model. Other/Unknown Material Arctic permafrost NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Arctic |
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Open Polar |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
op_collection_id |
ftnasantrs |
language |
unknown |
topic |
ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION |
spellingShingle |
ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION Holland, Elizabeth Frolking, Stephen Townsend, Alan Carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems |
topic_facet |
ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION |
description |
The carbon-rich soils and peatlands of high-latitude ecosystems could substantially influence atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4 in a changing climate. Currently, cold, often waterlogged conditions retard decomposition, and release of carbon back to the atmosphere may be further slowed by physical protection of organic matter in permafrost. As a result, many northern ecosystems accumulate carbon over time (Billings et al., 1982; Poole and Miller, 1982), and although such rates of accumulation are low, thousands of years of development have left Arctic ecosystems with an extremely high soil carbon content; Schlesinger's (1984) average value of 20.4 kg C/m(sup 2) leads to a global estimate of 163 x 10(exp 15) g C. All GCM simulations of a doubled CO2 climate predict the greatest warming to occur in the polar regions (Dickinson, 1986; Mitchell, 1989). Given the extensive northern carbon pools and the strong sensitivity of decomposition processes to temperature, even a slight warming of the soil could dramatically alter the carbon balance of Arctic ecosystems. If warming accelerates rates of decomposition more than rates of primary production, a sizeable additional accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere could occur. Furthermore, CH4 produced in anaerobic soils and peatlands of the Arctic already composes a good percentage of the global efflux (Cicerone and Oremlund, 1988); if northern soils become warmer and wetter as a whole, CH4 emissions could dramatically rise. A robust understanding of the primary controls of carbon fluxes in Arctic ecosystems is critical. As a framework for a systematic examination of these controls, we discussed a conceptual model of regional-scale Arctic carbon turnover, including CH4 production, and based upon the Century soil organic matter model. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Holland, Elizabeth Frolking, Stephen Townsend, Alan |
author_facet |
Holland, Elizabeth Frolking, Stephen Townsend, Alan |
author_sort |
Holland, Elizabeth |
title |
Carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems |
title_short |
Carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems |
title_full |
Carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
Carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems |
title_sort |
carbon cycling in high-latitude ecosystems |
publishDate |
1992 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19940026126 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic permafrost |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 19940026126 Accession ID: 94N30631 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19940026126 |
op_rights |
No Copyright |
_version_ |
1766319405072908288 |